Car owners have a long-standing desire to provide their automobiles with a beautiful, shiny appearance, and to protect the underlying paint from environmental damage such as mud, water spots, and the effects of the sun. Over the years, car owners have come to prefer paste waxes to protect and beautify the exterior painted surfaces of their vehicles because wax finishes are typically more durable than finishes provided by wax-free products. One reason for their durability is that waxes provide harder coatings than greases or oils. Because of their superior hardness, waxes do not thin out when polished to a high-gloss sheen by rubbing with a polishing cloth.
Coatings based on waxes or silicones rely on the low surface energy to bead the water and protect the surface. Performance life is limited by the durability of the coating. Most of these materials are poly(dimethylsiloxane) fluids and paraffin waxes, are difficult to remove, and have limited durability.
Low surface energy coatings for use as automotive or marine waxes are available. These materials are generally silicones, which are expensive, difficult to apply, and have little durability. Paraffin waxes are also used, but these materials are also difficult to apply and remove from the finished surface of an automobile or boat. High molecular weight silicones were added to paraffin waxes to facilitate removal.
During the 1950's, silicone-polymer-containing liquid emulsions supplanted paste waxes as vehicle polishes in the consumer market because these emulsions are generally easier to apply to a car's finish, contained "built-in" road tar removers, and could be polished with less effort. However, those consumers who are more serious about the appearance of their car's finish (i.e., aficionados), and who restore vintage automobiles, continue to believe that higher gloss and durable finishes can only be achieved with paste waxes. These aficionados, as well as a broader class of specialty auto finish consumers, perceive paste wax finishes as being hard and durable and conversely perceive emulsion based finishes as being soft, and easily removed. Furthermore, the specialty market is concerned with other properties of paste wax, for example the subjective feel or "hand" of wax as it is spread out on a painted surface. If the wax is too soft or contains too much non-volatile solvent, the wax can be "smeary" and slow drying. Conversely, if the wax is too hard, it can be difficult to "rub-out." Thus, there exists a need for a wax composition having desired physical properties including durability, ease of application, and stain resistance.
The addition of fluorochemical additives to automobile/marine compounds, glazes, waxes, and polishes is known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,705,592 (Sejpka et al.) describes a hard surface care material containing solid fluoro-silicone wax which changes the state of aggregation reversibly as result in change in temperature on rubbing giving a water proof, oil proof, and weather resistant surface. U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,015 (Wuerch) describes a non-spotting overspray masking composition for vehicles-includes amount of nonionic fluorochemical surfactant, nonvolatile polyhydroxy component, triethanolamine, and thickener.